1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical apparatus such as an X-ray CT (computer tomography) apparatus or an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) apparatus which, when used, needs a selection of an operational sequence or various parameters in each proceeding stage.
2. Description of the Related Art
A third generation X-ray CT apparatus is one of such medical apparatus. An X-ray tube and a detector are disposed within a gantry to face each other with a patient-bearing bed in between. Projection data of a patient on the basis of transmitted X rays in many directions can be acquired by rotating the X-ray tube and detector around the patient while maintaining the positional relation between the two units. A tomographic image is obtained by reconstructing the projection data.
The simplest diagnostic sequence is to place a patient on a bed first, depress a top plate slide switch on a console or the bed to slide the top plate of the bed to set the desired portion of the patient within an imaging region, set various scan parameters properly or to predetermined values, and depress a scan set button on the console to set the parameters. Then, a scan start button on the console is depressed to start scanning the patient. The scan parameters include the number of X rays (357, 600, 800), the diameter of the imaging region (160, 210, 240, 300, 350, 400 mm), the thickness of a slice (2, 5, 10 mm), an X-ray tube current (120, 250, 400 mA), a window level WL, a window width WW and the amount of slide increment of the top plate. The above operational sequence may include a step of selecting either a tomographic image or a scanogram, an image processing step and/or a step for selecting the display/output mode.
Accordingly, there are various switches and buttons provided on the console to select the proper sequence for a diagnosis as well as to set various parameters, which is likely to make an novice operator nervous about an erroneous operation of the switches and buttons or causing or facing an abnormal situation. If an emergency case is brought in at night and only a novice operator is available, therefore, it is likely that the proper diagnosis cannot be made or such a diagnosis takes an unusually long time.